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Those plans were dashed, however, as an apparent Michigan fumble recovery with less than five minutes to play was overturned. Penn State got the ball back and ran out the clock.

Peters, a redshirt freshman quarterback from Indiana, continues to be Michigan's primary backup behind fifth-year senior John O'Korn. On Monday, Harbaugh was asked specifically if he has any plans to insert Peters into game action moving forward — starting Saturday (noon, BTN) against Rutgers.

"We're just going along the process of readying him to play," Harbaugh said. "The backup quarterback always needs to be ready to play."

On Saturday against Penn State, O'Korn, who has followed up a strong relief appearance at Purdue with a 1-2 record as a starter this season, was 16-of-28 passing for 166 yards inin the 42-13 loss. He also lost a fumble and was sacked seven times.

Peters, a former four-star prospect and the No. 6-ranked pro style quarterback in the 2016 class, has seen limited snaps in only one game this season: On the final drive of a 28-10 win at Purdue in September.

"Brandon's getting backup snaps (in practice)," Harbaugh said. "He's readying himself to play. He's one play away right now. Every day he's readying himself to be out there playing." Michigan, at this point, appears to be moving forward with O'Korn as its starting quarterback. In six appearances this season — three starts — O'Korn is 61-of-110 passing for 729 yards, 1 touchdown and 4 interceptions.

Michigan quarterback John O'Korn has passed for just one touchdown this season in six games.(Photo: Kirthmon F. Dozier, Detroit Free Press)

Harbaugh said Monday that Wilton Speight, the team's opening-day starter, continues to rehab from a hit at Purdue that left him with multiple cracked vertebrae. The timetable for his return is still unclear.

Michigan's pass offense ranks No. 98 nationally with 187.7 yards per game. The Wolverines have thrown just four touchdown passes this season. Only Georgia Southern and Army, two triple-option offenses, have thrown fewer touchdown passes.

"I won't go into everything, but (O'Korn) managed the game very well. Got everything communicated and ran the offense very well," Harbaugh said. "There was some duress and some plays we could have made, etc. We'll go back and look at it. That's what we're in the process of doing.

"Some good (some not). That was kind of a theme for our offense."

If Harbaugh has plans to get Peters game reps this week against Rutgers, he's not sharing that information publicly.

The Wolverines will host Rutgers on Saturday and the quarterback depth chart — O'Korn, Peters and then freshman Dylan McCaffrey — looks like it'll remain unchanged.